Published on
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
byCommon Dreams
Billionaire Bonanza Continues as Workers Pounded by Pandemic, Recession, and
GOP Relief Refusal
Since Covid-19 struck in March, the combined wealth of the 647 richest
Americans has increased by nearly $1 trillion, largely at the expense of
workers' safety-and sometimes their lives.
byBrett Wilkins, staff writer
Protesters demand that billionaires pay their fair share during a July 17,
2020 demonstration in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
People participate in a "March on Billionaires" event on July 17, 2020 in
New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
A handful of billionaires and corporations are enjoying record financial
gains-often attained at the expense of worker safety-during the peaking
coronavirus pandemic, according to a report published Wednesday by a
coalition of advocacy groups.
"We don't need feel-good TV commercials thanking us for being heroes, we
need $5 an hour in hazard pay, paid sick leave, and workplace protections
from this dangerous virus."
-Courtenay Brown, Amazon Fresh warehouse worker
As over a thousand people in the U.S. alone die each day during the
deadliest pandemic in a century, plutocrats and their businesses are
thriving like never before, in no small part due to a system rife with
profiteering, opportunism, and worker exploitation. So says the report,
entitled Billionaire Wealth vs. Community Health: Protecting Essential
Workers from Pandemic Profiteers, which focuses on 12 of the most egregious
pandemic profiteers-the "Delinquent Dozen"-who include the owners of Walmart
and the CEOs of Amazon and Target.
These companies and their owners and executives have benefited from their
"monopoly positions," the report states, but their success "hasn't
translated into better pay or safer working conditions for the employees
showing up to work in a pandemic."
It's not just corporations-"private equity firms have bought up essential
businesses in the healthcare, grocery, and pet care industries, only to
aggressively cut costs, skimp on worker safety, and load companies up with
debt to boost their own profits," the report notes.
Among its key findings:
As of November 17, the combined wealth of 647 U.S. billionaires increased by
almost $960 billion since mid-March, the beginning of the pandemic lockdown.
Since March, there are 33 new billionaires in the U.S. Driving this
exploding inequality are 12 companies whose profits are coming at the
expense of workers and communities, including retailers like Walmart,
Amazon, Target, and Dollar Tree, and Dollar Store, gig economy companies
like Instacart, and food producers like Tyson Foods.
Also included is the investment giant BlackRock and private equity firms
like Leonard Green Partners, Blackstone, Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co.,
Cerberus Capital, BC Partners, and CVC Capital Partners. These private
equity firms own several essential healthcare, grocery, and pet supply
companies.
Ten billionaire owners of "Delinquent Dozen" companies have a combined worth
of $433 billion. Since March 18, their combined personal wealth has
ballooned by $127.5 billion, a 42% increase. These 10 billionaires are: Jeff
Bezos (Amazon); Alice, Rob, and Jim Walton (Walmart); Apoorva Mehta
(Instacart); John Tyson (Tyson Foods); Steve Schwarzman (Blackstone); Henry
Kravis and George Roberts (KKR); and Steve Feinberg (Cerberus).
The report features harrowing testimonies from workers affected by both the
pandemic and their employers' policies and actions.
"I close the register many nights, so I know my store's revenue has
practically doubled since the coronavirus hit," said Kenya Slaughter, an
employee of Dollar General-which is partly owned by the global financial
behemoth BlackRock. "But we workers haven't gotten any extra money, even
though we're risking our health, and our families' health, to keep the
stores running."
Courtenay Brown, an Amazon Fresh warehouse worker in New Jersey and
organizer with the worker advocacy group United for Respect, said, "While
Amazon's Jeff Bezos is on track to become the world's first trillionaire,
the frontline workers like me who've built his fortune are treated like
we're disposable."
Brown added:
As the virus spikes, we get more and more orders, and Amazon expects us to
work at inhumane rates. The pace is blistering and people get injured on the
job a lot, people get sick, people are scared of catching [Covid-19], and
Amazon is not doing enough to protect our lives. It's time for Amazon's
workers to get some actual compensation for the essential work we're
doing-we don't need feel-good TV commercials thanking us for being heroes,
we need $5 an hour in hazard pay, paid sick leave, and workplace protections
from this dangerous virus.
The report contains a set of recommended solutions for companies employing
essential workers, as well as for lawmakers seeking to protect workers and
reduce the power of plutocrats and the businesses they own. For employers,
these include immediately offering workers at least $5 per hour in hazard
pay, paid sick leave, and other essential benefits. For legislators, an
Essential Workers' Bill of Rights, workplace health councils, a pandemic
wealth tax, and a profiteering oversight committee are among the recommended
remedies.
"When billionaire owners and CEOs fail to fulfill their responsibility
during this extraordinary time, it is the duty of elected officials and
Congress to step in and enact public policies to protect essential workers
and their communities."
-Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies
"When billionaire owners and CEOs fail to fulfill their responsibility
during this extraordinary time, it is the duty of elected officials and
Congress to step in and enact public policies to protect essential workers
and their communities," Chuck Collins, a senior scholar at the Institute for
Policy Studies and one of the authors of the report, wrote in a Common
Dreams op-ed published Wednesday.
"The contrast between billionaires making no sacrifice while their essential
workers make the ultimate sacrifice, risking their health, their families,
and their livelihoods is both unethical and corrupt," Collins added.
The report was produced by Bargaining for the Common Good, the Institute for
Policy Studies, and United for Respect and published in partnership with
Action Center on Race and the Economy, Americans for Financial Reform, Jobs
With Justice, New York Communities for Change, Step Up Louisiana, and
Working Washington.
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